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AN INTRODUCTION 



TO THE 



TflEOSOPfly 1 CHRIST 

EMBRACING THE 

SCIENCE OF INTUITION, MENTAL HEALING AND 
SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY. 



BY J H. DEWEY. M. D. 



PRICE, 35 CENTS. 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 



BUFFALO: 
CARRELL & NlSELL, 



SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY 
DIVINE HEALING. 



A New Education, based upon the Ideal and Method of 

the Christ, interpreted and formulated in the light 

of Modern Anthropology. 

By John Hamlin Dewey, M. D. 



This teaching recognizes the triune nature of man — 
St. Paul, the Christian Adept — "B< 
I Gtodaa the indwelling power in 1 

. It inducts the student into this und 
d trains him in the art of mental co-op 
tion with the Divine Indwelling Life : First, in 

wuatic functions of the physical life for the healing 

fection of the body, as an organic instrument of 

i; Second, in the intuitive functions of the 

spiritual life, for the illumination of the mind and the 

(1 perfection of the soul aud its power. 
the temple of the spirit. 



The school gives Three Special Courses of Instruction: 

1. Pi mbracing the Science and Art of Self 

Hci d the healing of others. This is attainable 

nary intelligence. 

•J. \ wing Intuition, Normal Seership, 

Supremacy ry, the key to all 

i a l— Qualifying students for teaching and the 
li'mg. Terms made known on ap- 
Tsonally or by letter. 

J, H. DEWEY, M. D., 552 Main St , 

Y. 



AN INTRODUCTION 



TO THE 



TflEOSOPflV I CHRIST 



EMBRACING THE 



SCIENCE OF INTUITION, MENTAL HEALING AND 



SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY. 



APR 11 1881/' 



6/r 



Of 



BY J H DEW£,Y- M. D. 






washjhG 






•And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of 
God cometh, he answered them and said; The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation: neither shall they say Lo, here ! 
or, there! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you." 



11 Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father U 
perfect." 






Entered accord.ng to act of Congress, in the year 1887, by J. H. 

Oewey, M. D.. i u the office of the Librarian of Congress 

at Washington, D. C. 






M I will say, although I cannot as yet give proof, that 
there are other powers of the iutellect besides the ordr 
nary mental powers. These latter are extremely lim- 
ited, and cannot reach beyond a certain point. But 
there are those now living, who, perhaps, one of these 
days, will make some discovery or invention that will 
make a revolution in our theories and medical practice." 

I > row n Sequard. 



And 1 saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first 

''-av..„ and the first earth were passed away . . . 
And I, John, sa the holydty new Jm ; 

ZZSJZ* heaveu ' prepared as a bride > 3— 

hotrlh ''f? 1 a grCat V ° ice ° Ut of heaven > ^ying, Be- 
hold the tabernacle of God is with men/and he *ffl 
dwell w,th them, and they shall be his people, and God 

himself shall be with them, and be their God 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes- 

and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow n 0r 

crying, neither shall there be any more pain: tor' the 

former things have passed away. 
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make 

all thing, new. And he said unto me, Write: for these 

words are true and faithful. 

Ome« h tl Sa H J " nt ? me ' Jt iS d0De - J am AI P ha a "d 
Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto 

fl^l ^ athlrSt ° f thG f0 « ntain °f the water of life 

He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I 
wdl be his God, and he shall be my son. 

Rev. 



AN INTRODUCTION 

TO THE 

THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 



As a preface to the introduction of the spe- 
cific features of the Christian Theosophy, it 
may be well to refer to the general features of 
that older Theosophy which is not distinctly 
Christian. 

The term Theosophy signifies divine wis- 
dom, being derived from two Greek words 
meaning God and Wisdom. Hence Theosophy 
has been called " the Science of the Wisdom of 
God." 

The definition of the position of the British 
Theosophical Society, as laid down in the rules 
of that society is as follows ; 

"The British Theosophical Society is founded for the 



8 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

purpose of discovering the nature and powers of the hu- 
man soul and spirit, by investigation and experiment. 

"Our object is to increase the amount of human health, 
happiness, knowledge, wisdom and goodness ; and we 
pledge ourselves to the best of our powers, to live a life 
of truth, temperance, purity and brotherly love. 

a We believe in a great first intelligent Cause, and in 
the divine sonship of the spirit of mau, and hence in the 
immortality of that spirit, and in the universal brother- 
hood of the human race." 

In an address by the president of that socie- 
ty, are the following words : 

" We all, 1 understand, realize the trinity in man of 
body, soul, and spirit; and thus it is that our rules indi- 
cate that we shall do our best to increase our bodily 
health, our soul's strength, and purity, and the exalta- 
tion of the spirit ; and we all, I think, thus understand 
that the central essence of all true religion is one and 
identical, namely, to evoke the hidden spiritual center of the 
soul, and unite that ivith God." 

This is a Western modification of the occult 
philosophy of the East which recognizes instead 
of a trinity, a seven-fold nature in man. 

Theosophy, as applied to the occult science 
and wisdom claimed by certain mystic broth- 
erhoods of the East, (Indian and European) 
supposed to have been handed down from re- 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 9 

mote antiquity, embraces both an ideal and a 
method ; an ideal attainment of divine wis- 
dom, fellowship and supremacy with the gods, 
by human effort alone ; a method involv- 
ing secret processes disclosed only to the initia- 
ted, through which this transcendent attain- 
ment is supposed to be reached. 

This Oriental Theosophy now being intro- 
duced into our own country and receiving the 
attention and patronage of many thoughtful 
people, is thus described by Murdock : " Sup- 
posed intercourse with God and superior spir- 
its, and consequent attainment of superhuman 
knowledge, by physical processes ; as by the 
theurgic operations of some ancient Platonist, 
or by the chemical processes of the German fire 
philosophers." and by Webster, "A direct as 
distinguished from a revealed knowledge of 
God, thought to be attained by extraordinary 
illumination." The whole doctrine is based 
upon an assumed capacity in man for this 
illumination and attainment, while the secret 
of attainment is supposed to lie in the peculiar 



10 A N INTIlnDK l<\<>\ TO THE 

processes by which such illumination is to be 
secured. 1 hote processes, so far as known out- 
side the secret orders in which they are sacred- 
ly guarded, are highly abnormal in character, 
some having been resorted to by the 
Mystics and would-be Seers of all ages, for a 
like purpose ; such as fasting, solitude and pro- 
longed meditation, mortification of the flesh, 
the cataleptic and hypnotic trance, the use of 
various nerve and mind exhilarating narcot- 
ics, and abnormal conditions otherwise induced 
in the nervous system. 

In contrast with these, the pure and practi- 
cal theosophy of the Christ— as applied 
to the changed conditions of modern life in the 
light of a better knowledge of the innate pow- 
ers of man,— presents an Ideal and a Method 
at once divine and perfect, as only the Christ 
could give. This Ideal reveals not only the 
boundless capabilities of man, but also the infi- 
nite perfection of the Being and Providence of 
God as the basis, both of this divine capacity 
in man as His offspring, and the exhaustless 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 11 

resources of His kingdom for bringing these 
possibilities to fruition, in actual fulfillment of 
the Divine Purpose, and the realization of 
man's spontaneous aspiration and desire. And.,, 
based upon this Ideal of human possibility and 
the divine purpose and provision, the Theoso- 
phy of the Christ furnishes a correspondingly 
perfect method for their realization through 
the liberation of these innate powers, and their 
higher education and perfection on the plane 
of the spiritual and divine, by processes which 
are normal, specific, practical and direct, with- 
out secrecy and without mystery. 

Assuming the divinity and perfection of the 
Ideal and Method of the Christ, they form 
the only true basis of education for the com- 
plete development and perfection of man, in 
all the higher possibilities of Ins being. First, 
then, the Ideal of God, not only as an overrul- 
ing Power and Providence, so universal and 
specific that not a sparrow falls to the ground 
nor a human hair perishes without his notice ; 
but also as an omnipresent Spirit or indwelling 



12 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

Divinity and Life, limitless, .exhaustless and 
absolutely perfect. Second, his Ideal of man 
as the child of God, and, therefore, in his essen- 
tial being spiritual, partaking of the divine 
nature and attributes, and so endowed with an 
inherent capacity to untold into all the perfec- 
tion of being and character which inhere in the 
nature of God. 

In the mere child, however, the perfection 
of the Father's being can exist only po- 
tentially, just, as the full-grown oak is po- 
tential in the acorn, or the adult in the in- 
fant. Yet because the essential characteristics 
of the Supreme Being do actually inhere in 
man as His offspring, there is a corresponding 
certainty of their possible realization in human 
experience. But should man, because of iden- 
tity of nature, assume equality with the Father, 
before unfolding to the divine estate through 
the normal process of development, as from in- 
fancy to manhood, and thus seek to realize it 
in experience, he would but disp^ ,y the folly 
of an infant assuming the position and dignity 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 13 

of the mature man " Verily I say unto you, 
except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." Humility, therefore, and not pre- 
sumption, is the first condition for recognizing 
and entering into the true life and character 
of the Ineffable One, whom it is our in- 
expressible privilege to call Father — "Our Fa- 
ther in heaven/' whose Holy Name should ev- 
er be most deeply and reverently hallowed in 
our thought. 

Nevertheless, because the actual nature and 
attributes of the Father — omniscience, omni- 
presence, omnipotence and all Perfect Being — 
do inhere potentially in man as His child, 
awaiting only the quickening touch of the 
true and divinely-ordained education and dis- 
cipline to be brought forth and actualized in 
human experience, man has infinite encour- 
agement to seek the realization of this divine 
possibility through personal co-operation with 
the divine will and purpose to this end ; the 
one true and only method instituted by the 



1 I AN IN 1 ROD1 CTION TO THE 

Christ. The "straight and narrow way that 
leadeth unto life/ 1 

This divinely anointed Teacher having lift- 
ed up the true and perfect ideal before men, 
<and demonstrated in his own transcendent at- 
tainment and victorious life the one perfect 
method of its realization, freely gave it to the 
world, imposing no mysterious rites nor secret 
orders for its promulgation and success ; and 
no condition on the part of men but their rec- 
ognition of, supreme desire after, and loving, 
whole-hearted loyalty to the will and purpose 
of the Father in them. That will and purpose, 
though revealed by the Christ, must and will 
be confirmed by the witness of the Spirit in 
personal revelation to each soul, through the 
spirit of child-like trust and obedience; this 
being the certain and only key that opens the 
soul to direct and personal revelation from the 
Father. <• There is a spirit in man and the 
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them un- 
derstanding f but he only « that willeth to do 
His will shall know of the teaching." 



TllEOSOPIlY OF THE CHRIST. 15 

In this attempt to revive the pure Theosophy 
of the Christ in its practical application to the 
changed conditions of modern life, there is noth- 
ing essentially new, save the specific pro- 
cesses deduced from the new study of man both 
in the light of Christ's teaching and example, 
and of modern scientific discovery by which 
the words of Jesus are better understood. This 
new and better understanding makes it prac- 
tically a new teaching. 

This teaching, however, is still based upon 
the recognition of Jesus as the Christ, and the 
recognition, also, of the revelation of God in 
Christ, as the revelation of the divine Ideal 
and Method for the final education and perfec- 
tion of man as the child of God. On this rev- 
elation the New or Christian Theosophy is 
based, as the Oriental and older Theosophy 
claims to be based upon a supposed primal 
revelation of remote antiquity. 

This newly revived Theosophy of the Christ 
simpiy aims to be the full and practical appli- 
cation of the perfect ethics of Jesus in a way to 



16 A.N INTRODUCTION TO THE 

meet the conditions of modern life; it em- 
braces both a doctrine and a method, which 
constitute it a distinct and specific education 
of the human powers on a new and higher 
basis. As a doctrine it holds the loftiest ideals 
and aims possible to man, whether in the 
sphere of religion or philosophy, since it rec- 
ognizes God as the Father of mankind, and 
His infinite perfection of Being as the legiti- 
mate goal of human possibility, aspiration and 
desire. As a method of attainment and realiza- 
tion, h promises to effect all of divine good that 
is sought after, whether in religion, philosophy, 
occultism or modern spiritism, and vastly be- 
yond what is possible by the methods of exter- 
nal science or art. 

It is a new and higher education, based up- 
on the Christ Ideal of the Eternal Fatherhood 
and perfect Providence of God, and of the in- 
destructible sonship and divine possibility of 
man as the child of God— the possibility of be- 
coming u perfect even as the Father is perfect." 
It begins with the Ego and seeks to unfold 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 17 

power aftd intelligence from within in striking 
contrast with the method of the schools, which 
is external, beginning with the senses and ed- 
ucating the intellect through the senses. This 
Christ method begins with the spirit and in- 
ward life, and aims to educate not only the 
intellect but the entire man, by unfolding bis 
latent powers from the spirit within, which in 
this teaching is recognized as the true source 
and fountain of all intelligence, goodness and 
power, as it is the breath or life of God in him. 
Education, meaning to educe, or cause to 
grow, is suggestive of the true idea of what 
constitutes only real education. It is the educ- 
ing or bringing forth of intelligence and power 
from within man, not the crowding of his mind 
and memory with facts about things external. 
These facts need to be observed and under- 
stood, but man needs first and most to bring 
forth and establish that power and intelligence 
from within which perceives, understands, han- 
dles, controls and uses for its own specific ends 
and purposes, the things of the outward world. 



AN [KTR0D1 iO T11K 

It is only through the development and organ- 
ic perfection of this power from within, that 
man ifl destined to achieve and hold absolute 
mastery and dominion over all that is external 
to himself. 

It may be claimed that thi3 is the practical 
aim of the very education of the intellect 
through the senses, which we have called ex- 
ternal and limited. The claim is true to a de- 
gree, and Christian Theosophy does not ignore 
either the value or necessity of such external 
education in its legitimate sphere, which at 
most is hut the primary department of the 
school of God. 

Man at his best, on the plane of physical sci- 
ence, is still in the school of the senses, and 
education based upon sensation alone can meet 
only that condition of human life, which in its 
relation to the full development of a true man- 
hood, is but the immaturity of youth. In this 
primary or sensuous sphere of man's activity, 
his sciences, philosophies, theologies and inven- 
tioi. ver important they may appear to 



THEOSOrHY OF THE CHRIST. 19 

him, are but the toys, baubles and sports of 
early childoood. Nevertheless, these are nec- 
essary and essential to childhood ; yet the per- 
fection of his education, even in this primary 
department of the senses, will be realized only 
when the principles of the Kindergarten, man- 
ual training, and industrial schools are fully 
applied throughout, and the spiritual in man 
is recognized and interwoven with all the pro- 
cesses of daily activity. 

But Jesus "came in the power of the Spirit 
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the king- 
dom of God, and saying, ' The time is fulfilled 
and the kingdom of heaven is at hand'." The 
organic life of the race w T as now sufficiently un- 
folded to begin and extend this higher educa- 
tion unto all men, and without this spiritual 
education neither the race nor any member of 
the race, can rise to the full realization of the 
exalted destiny that it is man's to achieve. 

"Repent ye, therefore,' 7 said Christ, "and 
believe" (receive) "the gospel." That is to say, 
turn about and change your method of life, 



SO \n IN rRODUCTIOM To THE 

motive and effort — which is the literal mean- 
ing of the word repent — and enter into this 
gospel of good news of the spiritual life. Be 
not anxious, therefore, ahout the things of the 
external, "but seek first His kingdom a«nd His 
righteousness [right life], and all these things 
shall be added unto you." "For whosoever 
would save his life [mere life in the senses] 
shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life 
for my sake and the gospel's, shall save it," and 
save it to its divinest possibilities. The per- 
fection of the senses and all the physical pow- 
ers as well, can be reached only through the 
spiritual finding organic expression in and 
through them, by which they become the in- 
struments of the spiritual life as well as of the 
mental powers ; " the Word made flesh," or 

k>d manifest in the flesh " of every man, as 
in the personal experience of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. 

Had not the possibility of the Christ life ex- 
isted in every human soul, the Christ himself 
would never have called upon all men to follow 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 21 

Him, with the assurance that they should thus 
do the works He did, and even greater 

As the words soul, mind and spirit are often 
confounded and used by some writers as synon- 
ymous, a definition of these terms as used in 
Christian Theosophy becomes necessary. By 
the soul is meant the combined powers of the 
w r hole organic man ; every faculty and func- 
tion which inheres in and goes to make up the 
personality, is an attribute or portion of the 
soul. By the mind is meant that portion of 
the soul which thinks and formulates ; in other 
words, the intellectual or thinking part of man. 
By the spirit is meant the inmost life ; the in- 
destructible essence and animating principle of 
the souPs being ; the essential element of the 
Divine Nature in man ; the indestructible life 
of the Father in his children, in which all the 
powers of the personal life have their origin 
and perpetuity. " Know ye not that ye are a 
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwell- 
eth in you?" " Surely Spirit is in Man, and 
the inspiration of the Almighty maketh intel- 



tt \\ ENTBODUOTIOK TO THE 

ligent" (True rendering of Job xxxii. 8.) "God 

is Spirit "; hence the central or essential life of 
man is the indwelling presence of God, or Spirit 
in man. 

The soul therefore is one thing and the spirit 
another ; the soul being the organic personal- 
ity, or self-conscious personal identity, as dif- 
ferentiated from, though existing in the Divine 
Being. "In Him we live, move and have our 
being ;" while the hu ian spirit is just so much 
of the Divine Spirit as the soul in its freedom 
of choice and action honestly desires and seeks 
to appropriate to the unfolding and perfection 
of its own powers, and thus make its own. 
By this development of the human faculties 
into the pure life of God on the spiritual 
plane of their activity, the personal life actu- 
ally becomes one with God in essential Being, 
while to the outward world it maintains its ac- 
tive personality, and inwardly also, in its rela- 
tion to the Supreme Life, its self-conscious per- 
sonal identity. Life on the plane of the spir- 
itual, or spiritual life, is here recognized as dis- 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 23 

creet and practically distinct from life on the 
sensuous and animal plane, or animal life, 
while the human powers are organically relat- 
ed to both, and may therefore become active 
on both. 

As the personality thus exists in and from 
God, its innate capacity to appropriate and 
make the Divine Nature its own, is as unlimit- 
ed as the Being of the Father from whom it is 
derived ; while the development and perfec- 
tion of the soul's powers, through this appro- 
priation, by the process instituted by the Christ 
and taught by his Theosophy, is but the 
unfolding from an infinite within toward the 
comprehension and mastery of the infinite 
without. 

Nothing less than this capacity could con- 
stitute man a child of God, inheriting His Na- 
ture in potential being. On this fundamental 
doctrine of Jesus, the Christian Theosophy 
bases its specific processes for carrying forward 
the true and higher education instituted by 
him as the Christ. 



M EKTBOD1 •« I h>N TO THE 

It seeks first, therefore, to awaken and unfold 
M the sublime powers resident in the Ego," and 
through these to quicken and exalt the subor- 
dinate powers of the entire organism, and thus 
to transfigure the whole humanity after the 
pattern of its indwelling divinity. Hence it 
begins with the spirituality of our being and 
unfolds the powers of life from within ; the 
schools begin with the senses and seek to un- 
fold and educate the whole man on the plane 
of the senses. 

Through this higher training of the human 
powers on the spiritual plane of their activity, 
in accord with the Divine Will and Wisdom, 
it exalts man to the sublimest possibilities of 
his being, and thus fulfills the will and pur- 
pose of the Father in him. This higher edu- 
cation consists simply in the training of the ra- 
tional and moral powers of men in the light 
and on the plane of the spirit within, thus in- 
corporating, or bringing forth and enthroning 
in organic function, the spirit in all the facul- 
ties and powers of the soul. The spirit needs 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 25 

no training, it is perfect in itself, and acts with 
spontaneous wisdom and divine skill ; and 
when enthroned or made organic in the human 
soul, it becomes as absolute and supreme in 
the consciousness, and in the whole sphere of 
the personal activities, as is God in the uni- 
verse itself. 

'• God is Spirit," and Spirit is omniscient, 
omnipresent, omnipotent, original, absolute, 
changeless, indestructible Being. Man is the 
offspring of God, formed in His image and af- 
ter His likeness — in his rational and moral 
powers — and the human spirit, the " spirit in 
man," is a portion of the Divine Spirit given 
unto man for the exaltation and perfection of 
these powers in the likeness and character of 
the Father. It is the actual life of God in the 
soul, with all these characteristics of the Divine 
Nature inhering indestructibly in it. Hence 
every faculty and power of the soul is rooted in 
this life of God in man, and capable, therefore, 
of taking on a divine activity, and thus becom- 
ing perfect even as the same element or attri- 
bute in God is perfect. 



in rRODl 'HON TO Till: 

Man in his organic personality — the real and 
ntial man — is regarded in this teaching as 
a spiritual, not a physical being, the physical 
body being but a fleshly covering of the real 
man, a temporary enswathement of refined 
material in flexible form, as a physical cover- 
ing and organic instrument with which to come 
in contact and handle gross matterywhile acquir- 
ing an earthly education and discipline in the 
school of the senses The physical structure is 
no more vital to the soul's real being and ac- 
tivity, save as a means of communication 
with the outer world, than is clothing or rai- 
ment to the body itself " Is not the life more 
than meat ? and the body than raiment ?" 
Nevertheless, while the elements of the phys- 
ical body are held in the life and around the 
form of the indestructible spiritual organism 
as living tissue, by the vital and transcendent 
chemistry of that life, it is an organic part of 
man, though a superficial and evanescent part; 
yet it is an external counterpart of the real and 
spiritual body, and to a large degree represents 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 27 

the condition, and so far, is a revelation of that 
inner organism. Its refinement and perfection, 
therefore, as an external instrument of the 
soul's activity, will correspond to the height 
to which the spirit itself has risen and come 
forward in the souPs powers. 

St. Paul affirms that u There is a spiritual 
body", as there is a natural or physical body, 
and this truth is confirmed by every true seer 
from that day to this, all recognizing this inner 
spiritual body as the real, permanent and inde- 
structible organism of the man. Swedenborg, 
who has written much upon this subject, says: 
"The soul of man is a spiritual substance of 
the same form as his body, transfusing all the 
body's tissues, and wearing the body as a gar- 
ment, even as the body wears its clothes. The 
body lives from the soul. In itself, the body 
is dead and without sensation, as is evident 
when the man leaves it at death ; it then re- 
turns to its inorganic element. As the body is 
diseased or injured, the soul is more or less de- 
prived of its power of action in the natural 
world, but the soul itself is uninjured." 



\\ IN rRODl CTIOK T<» THE 

u At doath the spiritual body leaves the ma- 
terial, and makes its appearance in its higher 
sphere Whether it is beautiful or deformed, 
depends upon the man's conduct on earth." 

u The spiritual body of man is sus- 
tained by the light 'and heat of the spiritual 
Sun, which is the circumambient sphere of the 
Divine Love and Wisdom. From this spiritual 
Sun our natural sun exists, even as our mate- 
rial bodies live from our spiritual bodies. But 
all alike exist and subsist from the Lord alone." 
(White's Life of Swedenborg, p. 215.) 

Thus the spiritual body — as every true seer 
affirms — is the indestructible form of the soul's 
organism, and represents of necessity the qual- 
ity of the soul's organic life, it being the real 
organic man. Hence, the physical body being 
the fleshly covering and external counterpart 
of the spiritual form, deriving all its life and 
functions therefrom, and existing only in its 
life, is but the most external reflection or or- 
ganic expression of the soul's actual life and 
development. Hence, also, just in proportion 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 20 

as the soul acquires self-possession and self-con- 
trol, will it gain and hold possession and con- 
trol of the body and its conditions, its sensa- 
tions and functions, and be able both to pre- 
vent and heal disease in every form, and under 
all contingencies. 

The whole personality of the man, it will 
now be seen, w 7 as constituted with direct refer- 
ence to, and for the sole purpose of, receiving 
and embodying in organic function this in- 
dwelling life of God, and thus attaining per- 
fection of organic development and supremacy 
of personal life. Hence it is only through the 
appropriation of this indwelling and Divine 
Life to the growth and development of the 
soul's powers that man can unfold in the na- 
ture, character and power of the Father. It is 
only through this perfection so attained of the 
personal life, that he can exalt the body as the 
organic physical instrument of the soul's activ- 
ity in the outer world, to that degree of perfec- 
tion that it shall respond to every demand of 
his living personality. It is only thus that the 



AN INTRODUCTION H> THE 

physical structure which exists in the soul's 
life and form, can be held by the absolute 
chemistry of the spirit completely above the 
changing vicissitudes, and every destructive 
element and condition of the outer world. 
-They shall take up serpents; and if they 
drink any deadly thing it shall in no wise 
hurt them.'' 

Christian Theosophy, therefore, does not, as 
does pure idealism, attempt the impossible 
feat of ignoring and denying the reality of the 
outward w r orld and its material laws and con- 
ditions. It recognizes the legitimate sphere of 
the physical senses and the necessity of 
their proper training and discipline. It en- 
courages also the exercise of the intellect on the 
plane of the senses, realizing that physical sci- 
ence would be impossible without such exer- 
cise. Christian Theosophy recognizes the 
deeper fact, that there can be no true under- 
standing but from the standpoint of the divine, 
or light of the spirit which is the light of om- 
niscience : that as the impressions derived 



THE030PHY OF THE CHRIST. 31 

from the outward world through the senses 
have to be corrected and interpreted by the 
higher judgment of the intellect, so the intel- 
lect itself, in order to " judge not according to 
appearances, but to judge righteous judgment/' 
as the Master enjoined, needs also the higher 
light of spiritual intuition and inspiration, — 
"the true light which enlighteneth every man 
coming into the world. " The external education 
of the schools tends to shut out this light of the 
Spirit, by holding the attention upon the 
things of the outward world, and interpreting 
them only in the light of the sensuous under- 
standing. 

The real education, then, of the man, is from 
within, not from without. Through the meth- 
od of external education, from the standpoint 
of the senses, and of physical science, the at- 
tainment of personal mastery and organic 
spiritual supremacy is absolutely impossible. 
Physical science alone can never raise man 
above the limitations of the sensuous life and 
physical condition ; but through the spiritual? 



8S \N INTRODUCTION TO THE 

the soul finds its full deliverance from the 
thraldom of flesh, sense and materiality, and 
their limitations, and rises into all the freedom 
and perfection of divine being, in living con- 
scious communion and fellowship with the 
Father. 

As pure Spiritual Being God holds the uni- 
verse itself in His keeping and control, and is 
not enslaved nor limited by it. Why then 
should man as the child of God — also a spirit, 
and clothed upon with His attributes — be held 
in bondage to and under the limitations of his 
physical environments? 

Was not this indeed the very object of bis 
being placed in such environments, that he 
might learn through a rigid discipline his true 
and real position toward them, and rising in 
his inherent power as a spiritual being and 
child of God, assert his transcendent nature, 
and achieve his rightful supremacy over them, 
while yet holding organic relations with them? 

The practical omniscience of spiritual Intu- 
ition, and the power of achievement it gives 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 33 

the human soul once fully emancipated from 
the thraldom and limitations of flesh and sense, 
as much transcend the intelligence and power 
of the intellect and will on the plane of pure 
science, so called, as these transcend those of 
the savage or purely animal man Spiritual- 
it) 7 , therefore, made organic, as intellectuality 
has become, and as animality was spontane- 
ous^, is the only avenue through which hu- 
man freedom and perfection can be achieved. 

The question then arises, is this fundamen- 
tal doctrine of Jesus, that man is a child of 
God and, therefore, endowed with the inherent 
capacity to become " perfect even as the Father 
in heaven is perfect," absolute truth and not 
error? And, is the method instituted by Rim 
for its complete actualization in human expe- 
rience also divine and perfect ? In meeting 
these questions fairly, we have but to ask an- 
other question, viz : is the record of his own 
transcendent attainment and victorious life an 
essentially truthful history? If truthful, as 
herein assumed, then these are the absolute 



34 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

demonstrations of the truth and divinity of 
both his doctrine and his method. The power 
and efficacy of this doctrine and method were 
still further illustrated and confirmed in the 
marvelous experience and works of his imme- 
diate disciples, who by this method were trans- 
formed from uninfluential and ordinary men 
into the most heroic and influential band of 
reformers the w r orld has known. 

The misapprehension and misinterpretation 
of both the doctrine and method, as well as 
the spirit and the purpose of the great work 
instituted by the Christ, which arose after the 
Apostles went to their rest, and possibly in 
some degree with the Apostles themselves, is 
the all-sufficient reason why the power of 
Christ's gospel has not been more fully realized 
in the world. 

The Church has not fully taken him as the 
actual example for all men, with his assurance 
that "He that believeth in me the works that I 
do shall he do also ;" and his further injunc- 
tion, u Be ye therefore perfect, even as your 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 35 

Father in heaven is perfect. 7 ' It has not alto- 
gether made these injunctions the burden of 
its teaching as it was his. It has interpreted 
him and his divine instruction from the plane 
of the sensuous and selfish life, and so taught 
that men were to escape the terrors of a future 
hell, and the just penalties of their sins, and 
secure the bliss of a future heaven, not through 
any merit of their own, as the reward of a 
righteous life ; but through the merits of a 
righteousness fulfilled in the Christ once for all 
men, to be imputed unto them through faith 
in him as their substitute. 

Through this paganized corruption of the 
pure teaching and example of the Christ, the 
blind and leaders of the blind have fallen into 
the ditch together, this doctrine of substituted 
righteousness being pure paganism and carnal- 
ity and nothing else. The word of Christ to 
each soul is, Be ye personally perfect, even as 
God who is your Father is perfect. 

This revival of the pure Theosophy of the 
Christ, is an earnest effort to bring back the 



36 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

world to the perfect Ideal and Method of Jesus, 
and to re-establish the work he so divinely 
inaugurated lor the world's redemption. To 
lift up anew his divine Ideal of human per- 
fectibility, and restore the perfect Method insti- 
tuted by him for its actualization in the bring- 
ing forth and enthronement of the spirituality 
of man's being in organic supremacy. 

As God is Spirit, and man the child of God, 
it is only spiritually that he can unfold in His 
likeness and reflect his image, and thus become 
* perfect, even as the Father in heaven is per- 
fect". It is as pure spiritual Being only that 
God has absolute knowledge, creative power, 
and holds His entire supremacy and control 
over all things. It is only through the spirit- 
ual, therefore, that man as the child of God can 
attain absolute knowledge and personal su- 
premacy, or enter into fellowship with the Fa- 
ther in his wisdom and power; or with the 
Christ in his unity with the Father. From 
his throne in the Spirit the Christ says : " To 
him that overcometb, will I grant to sit with 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 37 

me in m}^ throne, even as I also overcame and 
am set down with the Father in his throne." 

It was the organic supremacy of the spirit 
attained by Jesus, that enabled him to over- 
come and enter into his dominion as the Son 
of God, and which made hin* the Christ or 
God-Anointed One. And what this did for 
the humanity of Jesus, which represented the 
humanity of all men, it will also do for them 
who follow his example and faithfully apply 
his method. It is only through the applica- 
tion of the direct processes involved in this 
method, that man can rise out of and above 
the mere physical sense of life, into the spirit- 
ual and indestructible, which is his true and 
normal sense of being — from the purely ani- 
mal plane of sensuous life and thought, to the 
higher exercise of the souPs pow T ers on the spir- 
itual plane of their activity, and thus over- 
come or achieve his emancipation from " flesh 
aud sense." This sensuous condition is what 
the great Apostle calls the " carnal mind," or 
" natural man which receiveth not the things 



AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

of God." It is only through emancipation 
from this condition, therefore, by these pro- 
cesses, that men can come into unity and fel- 
lowship with the life of Christ in God, or the 
realizing sense of actual life in God which char- 
acterized the mind of Christ, and to which Je- 
sus called the attention of the world as the 
eternal or indestructible life. This is the spir- 
itual and indestructible sense of being which 
comes of organic oneness with the life of God, 
and is attained only by spirituality being made 
organic. 

It is only through the permanent transfer 
of the seat or center of the organic activity of 
the soul's powers from the purely physical 
plane of the senses to that of the spiritual,that 
spirituality can be awakened, called forth and 
made organic, as intellectuality has become or- 
ganic Without such awakening the omni- 
science of pure spiritual intuition, or the pure 
unclouded vision of truth, and the attainment 
of personal mastery in spiritual supremacy is 
impossible. Until he has made this transfer 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 39 

from the physical to the spiritual, man, as a 
child of God, is not living his true life 

This transferrence of the plane of the soul's 
activity from the outward to the inward, is not 
difficult, since man is organized with direct ref- 
erence to this very slop, which is God's ordained 
method for his elevation to and advancement 
in the true life as a spiritual being and a child 
of God. Neither are the senses nor any bodily 
function in any wise impaired by this trans- 
ference ; on the contrary, they are raised to 
their highest degree of use and perfection by 
the pow r er of the spirit thus made organic in 
man, as illustrated in the personal experience 
of Jesus. 

The lifting up of the affections from the plane 
of animal desire, and the thought and atten- 
tion from the plane of the senses to the plane 
of the spiritual, gives to both the affections and 
thoughts such purity of action and trans- 
cendency of power that animal desire, physical 
sensation, and sense perception are at once 
brought into complete subordination and held 



40 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

to their normal and legitimate sphere of activ- 
ity and use, in which they become also infilled 
with the light and power of the spirit, 

The inherent capacity for effecting this trans- 
ference or change exists in all men, awaiting 
only the earnest desire and faithful compliance 
with divinely ordained conditions. " Ye 
shall seek me and ye shall find me 
when ye shall seek me with all your heart." 
God is Spirit and can be found, therefore, only 
in spiritual conditions. Hence man can real- 
ize God only in the spiritual sense of being, 
and this can be secured only through the de- 
velopment of spirituality by the exercise and 
cultivation of his nobler powers on the spiritual 
plane of their activity. 

It is only through spirituality thus enthroned 
in the personal life that man can "work out 
his own salvation/ 1 because it is only through 
this, that "God worketh in " him "both to will 
and to do of his own good pleasure". This 
constitutes the enthronement of the kingdom 
of God and the actualization of the divine will 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 41 

and purpose in human life and society on earth 
as it is in heaven. This and this only will 
give the final and complete solution of every 
disturbing problem of life and destiny, since 
what it does for the individual it will do for the 
race, and God shall be all and in all. 

Christian Theosophy, therefore, recognizing 
the perfectibility of man on earth, seeks its ac- 
tualization through the transforming power of 
the spirit, and the absolute freedom it confers 
when enthroned in permanent organic suprem- 
acy in the personal life. This it accomplishes 
by opening the spiritual understanding or intu- 
itive perception of the truth or reality of things, 
as distinct from the sensuous understanding 
based upon the appearance of things ; and, 
through this, the awakening of the true spirit- 
ual sense of being — or the realizing sense of 
life in God — as distinct from the physical 
sense of being, or of life as held in physical 
limitation and conditions. This change from 
the physical to the spiritual sense of being is 
readily effected through the applicatian of spe- 



M AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

ciiic mental and spiritual processes, as normal, 
direct, and practical as the various processes 
adopted for the cultivation of music, mathe- 
matics, painting or any of the arts, and no 
more difficult 

By abstracting ourselves in thought from 
our sensations and surroundings, through a 
simple process of introversion readily taught 
and acquired, and withdrawing our attention 
and desires from the plane of the sensuous life 
and its allurements, and fixing them upon ob- 
jects that belong to a higher and more interior 
plane, we liberate the mind at once from its 
entanglement with sensuous impressions, with- 
out in any wise restricting its powers. On the 
contrary, the full act of introversion, while it 
completely subordinates the physical senses to 
the mind which uses them, as avenues or in- 
struments of contact with the externals of 
things, also by centering the mind internally 
upon itself, awakens its interior original, and 
all-inclusive spiritual sense, into conscious in- 
dependent activity, above and separate from 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 43 

its external and divided action through its five 
nerve connections with the outer world. By 
thus opening the mind's internal perception of 
things as they are in character and condition, — 
which do not always accord w T ith external ap- 
pearances, — it gives the clear vision of truth, 
which penetrates beneath the surface to the 
substance and soul of things, and thus accu- 
rately discriminates between the appearance 
and the reality. The mind becomes thus es- 
tablished in its independent and self-centered 
basis of truth, and is then readily opened on 
its spiritual side to the various gifts of the Spirit 
enumerated by Paul in his remarkable letter 
to the Corinthians, according as the mind 
itself is constituted to receive and enter into 
them. No two minds being exactly alike in 
this respect, yet all doubtless qualified for some 
one or more of the gifts in greater or less de- 
gree of perfection, the gift or gifts will corres- 
pond with the special character of each mind 
and the degree of its interior development. 
Said St Paul: "Concerning spiritual gifts, 



44 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

brethren, I would not have you ignorant. * * 
* Now there are diversities of workings, 
but the same God, that worketh all things in 
all. But to each one is given the manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit, to profit withal. For to one 
is given through the Spirit the word of wis- 
dom ; and to another the word of knowledge; 
to another, faith ; to another, gifts of healings; 
to another the workings of miracles ; to an- 
other, prophecy ; to another, discernings of 
spirits: to another, divers kinds of tongues; 
and to another the interpretation of tongues ; 
but all these worketh the one and the same 
spirit, * * * * Desire earnestly spiritual 
gifts. And, moreover, a most excellent way 
show I unto you." 

There is nothing miraculohs or supernatu- 
ral about these gifts of the Spirit. They are 
simply the result of the activity of the soul's 
powers on the plane of the inward or spiritual 
life, or in theosophical language, k < In the spir- 
itual sense of being." In the language of the 
'• Friends," " In the power of God." In the 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 45 

gospel phraseology, u In the power of the 
Spirit " u He came in the power of the Spirit 
preaching/' etc. And in the language of Jesus 
himself, "In God." "He that doeth truth 
cometh to the light that his deeds may be 
made manifest that they are wrought in God " 
Through longing desire, prayer and conse- 
cration, men have in all ages entered into this 
exalted experience in greater or less degree of 
fullness ; but the traditional notions of the su- 
pernatural and miraculous, and with these the 
false ideas of divine favoritism, and spiritual 
monopoly, have so perverted the understand- 
ing and narrowed the conception of these men 
that they have failed to discover in their expe- 
riences the working of a universal law—" The 
same God who worketh all things in all," and 
who "is no respector of persons." It is simply 
a law of inspiration or inbreathing of a higher 
life as universal as the law of gravitation and 
as invariable in its operations The gifts of the 
Spirit can no more.be monopolized and made 
exclusive, than the gifts of sunshine or air. 



46 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

Each plant and animal appropriates these to 
the full extent of its organic capacity, accord- 
ing to the conditions of its own activity. So 
each man can appropriate to the full extent of 
his organic capacity, the light and power of 
the Spirit, according to the conditions of his 
personal relation and activity toward them. 
The daily systematic practice of mental ab- 
straction and inward concentration by exer- 
cises specifically adapted to each mind, will 
effectually transfer the mental activities from 
the physical or sensuous to the spiritual or in- 
tuitive plane of its nature, and opens the 
mind itself to the light and power of the 
Spirit. "The true light which enlighteneth 
every man coming into the world/' 

Physicists tell us of an elastic ether which 
fills all space and interpenetrates all substances, 
as the medium of vibration between suns and 
planets, and of motion in and among the ele- 
ments of matter itself. Infinitely more real, 
universal, interpenetrative, and specific, is in- 
finite Spirit or God. Spirit is omnipresence* 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 47 

and not only omnipresence but omniscience, 
and omnipotence as well ; and "In God," or 
omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent 
Spirit, " we live, move and have our being." 
Contact and communication with Him, then, 
through our inward life, is of the same free 
access to all. We cannot exercise our faculties 
therefore, on the inward and spiritual plane, 
without their taking on the attributes-of Spirit 
to the full extent in which they enter into it, 
and thus become endowed with power and 
wisdom from on high, since these attributes 
are omniscience, omnipresence and omnipo- 
tence. The immersion of the soul's powers 
in their higher activities in the inward life or 
life of God, constitutes the true spiritual bap- 
tism. There is nothing more abnormal or 
mysterious in this induction of the soul's pow- 
ers into the sphere of the spiritual in their ac- 
tivity, than there is in inducting them into the 
sphere of physical science. 

The superstitious awe and mystery with 
which ignorance has invested the sphere of 



48 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

divine contact and spiritual communion, 
and the false and debasing doctrines which 
have been associated with religion and spirit- 
ual experience, have clouded man's proper vis- 
ion of the spiritual life, giving it an abnormal 
coloring and placing it in a false light. The 
life of a man becomes immersed in sensuous 
experiences and chained to abnormal habits, 
growing out of excesses and perversions of the 
animal functions, which almost inevitably fol- 
low the complete dominion of flesh and sense. 
How |in he be emancipated from the power 
of fierce appetites and passions thus engendered 
and which his will becomes powerless to resist? 
Shall it be by the presentation of terrible pic- 
tures of death and hell, and the agonizing 
prayers of those who deem him doomed to an 
endless despair, calling on God to come forth 
from his hiding place and work a miracle in 
his behalf? This but too often drives the vic- 
tim into deeper frenzy and madness. Rather 
call forth the God within him, which is Spirit. 
"God is Spirit," Awaken the spirituality of 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 49 

his being. The process of awaking spirituality 
is as simple and rational as that by which the 
faculty of music is called into activity. This 
accomplished, the man is lifted from the phys- 
ical to the spiritual sense of being, and thus 
liberated from his bondage to flesh and sense. 
With this deliverance the power of the animal 
over him is broken at once and forever. 

The modern normal and practical exercises 
and processes of Christian Theosophy for edu- 
cating men into the spiritual sense of being 
and v the attainment of personal mastery, are 
made as simple and practical as the specific 
training for the practice of any branch of sci- 
ence or art, and no more difficult Indeed, this 
theosophical training in its practical bearings 
constitutes a specific education and prepara- 
tion for the true work of life. It regards God 
as the one Supremely Natural Being, ever 
present in His universe, the everywhere pres- 
ent life and providence, and the underlying 
power of all existences, and man as His imme- 
diate offspring born to personal supremacy. 



50 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

Christian Theosophy inducts men into this 
true understanding of God, as the immediate 
and direct source of all wisdom and power; 
brings them fully into their true and normal 
relation to Him as children to a Parent, and so 
clothes them with the position and dignity of 
true and loyal children of the Eternal, in their 
Father's House and dominions where all things 
are made subject to the members of the Royal 
Household. 

This it effectually does by liberating the 
mind through processes above referred to 
from dependence upon sense-perception, and 
opening its activities upon the higher plane 
of spiritual Intuition and Inspiration. Through 
this liberation it establishes the sense of inde- 
structible being independent of bodily or phys- 
ical sensation, and enthrones the spirit in man 
in its rightful organic supremacy. Sense per- 
ception thus becoming subordinated to the clear 
light of Intuition, and physical sensation to 
the independence of spiritual being, the mind 
enters at once into its transcendent freedom 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 51 

and power of action, and the whole personal 
life asserts supremacy over all material rela- 
tions and environments. 

u Social life," says a deep seer, " is a tumult 
in which mankind is entangled. If one, how- 
ever, will find a fixed point, and not allow 
himself to be carried away, he may observe the 
course of things as they pass by him, judge 
them and weigh them. Such an one lives in 
freedom and learns that which no instruction 
can teach bim. What passes without is ex- 
plained and interpreted by the spirit within. 
But, so long as man has only eyes and ears for 
things external, the inner faculty takes no cog- 
nizance of them. All should proceed from 
within. There lie many hidden mysteries in 
nature and in man of which we know nothing ; 
because our eyes and ears are wholly engrossed 
with external things, and because the sounds 
from without drown the voice from within. 
Oh, beloved, wondrous is the life of the inner 
world, by which we live and have our being ; 
and whence flows our consolation and our all. 



0'2 AX INTRODUCTION TO THE 

But alas, it awakens no wonder in us. We 
should be happy if we would listen to the soft 
whispers of the Spirit, and were not deafened 
to its murmurs by the mill-wheel of the world." 
Says VanHelmont : " When God creates the 
human soul, He communicates to it original 
and essential knowledge. This soul is the mir- 
ror of the universe, and is in connection with 
all things. She is lighted by a light from 
within ; but the storms of passion, and the 
multitude of sensuous impressions, and the dis- 
tractions of the world, darken this light whose 
beams are only shed when it burns alone, ana 
all within is in peace and harmony. If we 
would abstract ourselves from all external in- 
fluences and follow this light alone, we should 
find within ourselves true and unerring coun- 
sel. In this state of concentration the soul dis- 
criminates between all objects to which its ob- 
servation is directed. It can unite itself with 
them. — penetrate their properties, — and, reach- 
ing up to God, through Him attain the most 
important truths." 



THEOSOPHT OF THE CHRIST. 53 

Another deep seer, speaking of that highest 
condition of the inner life reached by introver- 
sion and concentration, u In which no decep- 
tion is possible," says : " From that moment 
everything resolves itself into an unbounded 
sea of light, in which from infinite bliss, I 
seem to be dissolved myself. Every form pre- 
sents itself in this light, — which far exceeds 
that of the sun, — in the most defined and accu- 
rate point of view. I comprehend everything 
much more easily and clearly ; the depths of 
nature are open to me, and my view of the 
past and future both as regards time and space, 
is like viewing the present ; and is more per- 
fect and defined in proportion to the degree of 
development the condition has reached." 

To the purely sensuous understanding this 
claim of seership or spiritual vision from in- 
ward illumination, will seem not merely as- 
tounding, but preposterous and absolutely im- 
possible of realization. Nevertheless the sim- 
ple facts of spontaneous somnambulism and 
trance, witnessed and testified to by competent 



I INTRODUCTION TO THE 

observers in thousands of instances, and espe- 
cially the marvels of the hypnotic or mesmeric 
trance artificially induced, demonstrate beyond 
all question the innate and independent vis- 
ion, activity and transcendent power of the 
mind, when liberated from its entanglements 
with sensuous impressions, and the cerebrum 
and every avenue of external sense is locked 
in profound repose. 

Here is demonstrated not only the possibility 
but the entire practicability of thus transfer- 
ring the organic center of the mind's activity 
from the plane of the senses and the cerebrum 
proper, to a more internal centre disconnected 
from all the special senses, and that without 
injury or disturbance to brain or body. In 
this state the cerebrum being wholly quiescent, 
and all the senses locked in complete insensi- 
bility, the most difficult and otherwise painful 
surgical operations have been performed with- 
out a twinge of nerve or muscle. Yet in this 
condition, the mind, liberated from its entan- 
glement with the senses, has ascended the 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 55 

throne of the inner life and fully asserted its 
organic supremacy and transcendent activity 
and power, independent of the senses and the 
front-brain In this condition it has used and 
controlled the body through the great centres 
of the involuntary life and automatic func- 
tions — the cerebellum and medulla oblongata — 
and performed feats of strength, endurance and 
manual dexterity vastly beyond the normal 
power of the body with all the senses awake 
and active. 

More marvelous, however, than feats of phys- 
ical dexterity and strength, with blindfolded 
eyes and practically dead to sensation in every 
form, are the exhibitions of mental power and 
the lucidity of independent inner vision. This 
condition so vastly transcends that of the indi- 
vidual in his normal state as to cause him to 
seem omniscient and omnipresent. In the 
state of ecstatic or spiritual trance, intromis- 
sion to the pure spiritual life, or the purely spir- 
itual condition is reached. Then have occurred 
visions of the heavenly world and revelations 



56 AV INTRODUCTION TO THE 

of divine things, the transcendent reality of 
which earthly language and external symbols 
utterly fail to express. Like St. Paul, these 
have heard and seen unutterable things. In 
this condition the whole expression of the out- 
ward man becomes transfigured and the face 
itself radiant with a heavenly glow. 

This opening of the inner or spiritual vision 
this revelation of the transcendent powers Of 
the mind on the higher and more interior 
planes of its organic activities, when liberated 
from the dominion and limitations of flesh and 
sense while yet in the body, have been so gen- 
erally connected with the abnormal conditions 
of trance or somnambulism, that it has been 
generally supposed such exhibitions of mental 
exaltation and power were of necessity abnor- 
mal and exceptional in character, and, there- 
fore, limited wholly to these abnormal and ex- 
ceptional conditions. It seems never to have 
occurred to the observers of these phenomena 
that all these powers adhere in the mind itself 
independent of the bodily conditions — the 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 57 

closing of the senses in trance serving simply 
to liberate them — and that consequently they 
may be awakened and brought forth in full 
organic power and supremacy, without the at- 
tending abnormal conditions of either trance 
or somnambulism. This is effected as already 
shown bj r the simple process of introversion. 
By this process the consciousness is liberated 
from its sense of dependence upon sensuous 
impressions and physical sensations, and the 
center of the mind's activity is transferred 
from the external to the internal plane with- 
out the entire closing of the senses. This in- 
sures the opening of the internal, original, all- 
inclusive spiritual sense, through which the 
mind is raised or awakened to its higher in- 
ternal plane of independent perception and 
intuitive action. The condition closely ap- 
proximates that of trance so far as the libera- 
tion and lucidity of the mind is concerned, but 
it does not involve the temporary paralysis of 
sensation which attends the perfect trance. 
External sensibility is merely subordinated to 



58 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

and overruled by the supremacy of the nobler 
internal sense, and independent mental vision 
and activity thus awakened and established. 
By this the mind learns to use the senses in 
the observation and study of externals, while 
maintaining the transcendency of its internal 
perception of the real character or soul of 
tilings. Thus it develops and exercises its in- 
dependent power of discrimination between the 
appearance and reality of all objects to which 
its attention is directed. 

Tliis art of awakening internal vision, of es- 
tablishing the intuitive action of the mind, of 
subordinating sense-perception to the clear 
light of Intuition, and bodily sensation to the 
spiritual sense of indestructible being, without 
restricting the legitimate action of any physical 
function, is fraught with the mightiest results 
to human destiny. It introduces man to the 
highest education possible to him in this world, 
because it calls into activity and establishes in 
rightful supremacy his noblest powers. It is 
the direct and only pathway to the final and 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 59 

complete emancipation and regeneration of 
man — and society on earth ; emancipation 
from error, sin and disease, and the suffering 
they involve, and regeneration into the spirit, 
and life and fellowship of the Father, which 
the efforts of the church by its well tried meth- 
ods during eighteen centuries has signally 
failed to effect These faulty methods and fu- 
tile efforts of the church, are the logical results 
of its fundamental ideal of saving men from 
the punishment of sin in the future life through 
the vicarious suffering and substituted merits 
of another, instead of personal righteousness 
as enjoined by Christ, and the saving of man 
to his highest possibilities here and now. " Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 
doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." 
" For I say unto you, that except your right- 
eousness shall exceed the righteousness of the 
Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." [Sermon on the 
mount) 



GO AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

This direct method of subordinating the 
physical to the spiritual in man, by awakening 
the spiritual side of the mind and developing 
its internal powers, when universally recog- 
nized and adopted, will prove, even in its pri- 
mary and simplest results, of incalculable ben- 
efit to the world. First : It will banish dis- 
ease and vice, and establish universal health 
by giving men supreme control of their bodily 
conditions and sensations. Second : It will 
banish deception and crime and rid the com- 
munity of frauds and impostors by unmasking 
all shams and pretences, however respectable 
they may appear. " For there is nothing cov- 
ered that shall not be revealed, neither hid 
that shall not be known. (Luke xii. 2.) 

It will enable the teacher and preacher to 
perceive and speak to the condition of all un- 
der their ministrations. It will not only give 
the true physician the power of correct diag- 
nosis, but it will endow him with the ability 
to heal without resort to medicine, through the 
absolute power and supremacy of the soul over 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 61 

the body, a power acquired by the higher un- 
derstanding of Intuition and the spiritual sense 
of being. What is true of these is equally so 
of every other department of human inter- 
course and activity, especially in the perfection 
of science, art, invention, and all the condi- 
tions of human life. 

There are two stages of development or 
planes of internal activity of the soul's powers, 
distinct or separated from each other b}^ dis- 
creet degrees, which may be termed the sixth 
and seventh senses of man. The first, or sixth 
sense relates to the internal character, quality 
and condition of persons and things, and is 
confined to the sphere of the objective uni- 
verse. It relates wholly to the sphere of per- 
sonalities and things. 

This sense is also the basis of mediumship 
and possible communication with the still liv- 
ing personalities of the departed. Yet every 
phase of mediumship involving the control or 
interference by disembodied spirits, or even by 
men still in the body over the personality and 



<32 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

will of the subject, is a rank perversion of this 
function, and fraught with danger to the indi- 
vidual who permits or indulges it. The proper 
training of this faculty, however, will fortify the 
person against any danger of such perversion 
and interference, and enable him to attain all 
possible development of so-called med'umistic 
powers, while retaining intact his individuality 
and self-control. Communication with the de- 
parted through normal seership is certainly 
attainable by such as are organized for it, and 
may be made both safe and practicable. It is 
one of the normal gifts of the Spirit referred 
to by Paul as the tC discerning of spirits," and 
was exercised by both Jesus and the Apostles. 
The real object and greatest benefit to be de- 
rived from the cultivation of this sense, and 
which is of universal application and attain- 
ment, is the development of intuition, and the 
establishment of the personal sense of inde- 
pendent and indestructible being. This is the 
first true step toward the emancipation of man 
and the attainment of self-mastery. It is the 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 63 

normal condition of the true life of man on 
earth. 

The seventh sense opens the personal life to 
the sphere of the divine, impersonal, eternal 
and infinite. It is the sphere of divine com- 
munion and Inspiration, in which the soul 
comes to a realizing sense of its oneness with 
the Father, and the sense of personality and 
limitation becomes subordinated to that of the 
impersonal and eternal, which says, " before 
Abraham" (or any personality) " was, I am." 
" I and the Father are one." The sixth sense 
of being developes and perfects the personality, 
and intensifies as well as deepens and perfects 
the personal sympathy with other personalities 
and the race. It tends, therefore, to the devel- 
opment and perfection of human brotherhood, 
on which the kingdom of heaven or spiritual 
fellowship and community of interest is based. 
The seventh, or God sense, unites man with 
the Divine, and puts into his conscious posses- 
sion the boundless and exhaustless resources 
of the Infinite, filling him with a heavenly 



04 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

impulse to use them only for the universal 
good. 

Many devout souls have approximated to 
this divine experience, and one at least entered 
into its full beatitudes while clothed in flesh, 
and these are his words : " All things that the 
Father hath are mine." "And he spake unto 
them saying: All authority hath been given 
unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, there- 
fore, and make disciples of all nations, bap- 
tizing" (immersing or inducting) them into, 
the "name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Spirit ; teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the consum- 
mation of the age"; that is, so long as this 
ministry is needed through which alone the 
ancient prophecy can be brought to fulfill- 
ment. "After those days, saith the Lord, I 
will put my law in their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, 
and they shall be my people. And they shall 
teach no more every man his neighbor, and 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 65 

every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: 
For they shall all know me, from the least of 
them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I 
will remember their sin no more " (Jer. xxxi. 
33,34) 

There have been abundant illustrations of 
the unfolding of these higher powers of man, 
and the marvelous experiences which follow 
their activity, while yet in the full use of the 
body and its senses. Many such examples are 
found in the personal history of certain of the 
mystics, among which were Jacob Behman, 
Van Helniont, George Fox, and others of the 
early Friends. Indeed, the distinguishing 
doctrine and experience of the Friends rests 
wholly upon the reality of the "inner light" 
and immediate revelation of the Spirit to ench 
soul ; and the truth of such revelation was 
abundantly demonstrated in the lives of the 
early members of this order, whose work was 
more characteristic of apostolic days than any 
other religious movement since that time. 



ttODl ( iion TO the 

The depth of spiritual experience, and the 
opening f the spiritual life and its wonderful 
power over men, reached by some of them, 
demonstrates both the efficacy and the practi- 
cability of the method they employed. Fail- 
ure resulted only from want of faith in and 
faithfulness to it, and this is the cause of the 
great degeneracy and dead formality into 
which that great movement, which promised 
so much in the day of its power, has fallen in 
modern times Perhaps, however, the making 
of it a purely religious matter, coupled with 
the narrow and abnormal, and indeed morbid 
views concerning the object of religion so uni- 
versally prevalent, have contributed as much 
to the paralysis and degeneracy of this once 
mighty movement. 

Had George Fox and his co-laborers been 
entirely emancipated from that paganized, 
theological corruption of Christianity, which 
regards this world as a mere probationary 
stage of preparation for an eternal and unalter- 
able condition of weal or woe in the world to 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 67 

come, such probation ending at death — the 
good in this life being only incidental — and 
had they fully understood the real doctrine of 
the Christ to be the organic perfection of man, 
and the enthronement of the kingdom of God 
in his personal and social life on earth, through 
the unfolding of spirituality in men, this retro- 
gression might have been averted. They 
would then have successfully established that 
dispensation of the Spirit for which the world 
was and still is waiting ; a dispensation for 
which the Christ so divinely wrought, and to 
inaugurate which he laid down his earthly 
life. To take up anew, carry forward and per- 
fect this work, is the full and simple purpose 
of Christian Theosophy. 

We have endeavored in this brief exposition 
to show in a simple and practical manner, that 
the liberation of the mind from its dependence 
upon sensuous impressions alone for its knowl- 
edge and judgment of the outer world, enlarges 
its sphere of action, opens its interior powers, 
gives it the clear vision of truth and the higher 



IMKOnri TION TO THE 

idded ability to use the senses with discrim- 
inating power, and so to "judge not according 
to appearances, but to judge righteous judg- 
ment,^ And that through this the further 
liberation of the of personal existence 

from its dependence upon and bondage to the 
physical or bodily sensations is also effected, 
and the organic health and perfection of all 
the bodily functions established. 

We have further endeavored to show that 
this change of organic base from the physical 
to the spiritual sense of life and being, does not 

rtroy nor prevent the necessity of a single 
normal and legitimate sensation designed for 
the preservation and perfection of the body, 
which is the soul's organic instrument of ser- 
vice in the physical world ; as for example, the 
sensation of hunger, without which the supply 
of the body's normal lies would be for- 

gotten and neglected. Nor does the change 
impair in the least the full healthful and nes- 
esearv i of any physical function. On 

the contrary, the body being then used only as 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 69 

an instrument for the higher and legitimate 
activities of the soul's life in its contact with 
the outer world, becomes wholly subordinated 
in its sensations and functions to the actual 
necessities and demands of the inward person- 
ality. The soul liberated from its sense of ex- 
ternal dependence, and established in a self- 
centered sense of independent and indestruct- 
ible being, is enabled to hold absolute control 
over the bodily conditions and sensations, and 
thus to hold all the bodily functions to their 
normal and legitimate sphere of organic activ- 
ity. It is thus also enabled to discriminate 
between those sensations which are normal and 
to be heedel, and those which are abnormal 
and hence to be ignored and banished. Thus 
man has power to banish disease and render its 
existence impossible forevermore. 

In this higher understanding and spiritual 
sense of being the hody is seen to he but the 
fleshly garment of the spiiitual organism, its 
e-msrituent elements* being separated from 
their normal relation with the physical world, 



" (> v\ INTRODUCTION TO THE 

and woven into the texture of the life and 
around the form, and thus hold in organic re- 
lations with the spiritual and indestructible 
body by the transcendent chemistry of that 
life. They are held and used in this relation 
so long as their service is required for the 
building up and repair of the instrument itself. 
And hence, when this higher understanding 
with its sense of self-centered and indestructi- 
ble being is established, the power of the per- 
sonal life over the physical elements it thus 
uses is absolute and complete. It holds them 
and the body made from them entirely above 
the changing conditions and vicissitudes of the 
physical world to which they are subject when 
disconnected from the personal life. 

Through this control of the animal and phys- 
ical in man, he acquires the power of control 
also over the animal world beneath him, and 
the rude forces of the world without, and thus 
fulfills the will and purpose of the Father con- 
cerning him, as reflected in the inspired soul 
of the author of Genesis. " And God said, Let 



THEOSOPHT OF THE CHRIST 71 

us make man in our image, and after our like- 
ness ; and let them have dominion " (supreme 
control) " over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over 
all the earth, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon the earth." 

To induct men into the method and its pro- 
cesses through which these stupendous results 
are achieved, and so help on the emancipa- 
tion and freedom of the race, is the specific 
work of the revived Theosophy of the Christ. 

This work, heing so much more readily ac- 
complished under the personal supervision and 
assistance of such as have themselves attained 
some degree of mastery and adeptship in this 
higher education, schools for instruction should 
be opened everywhere, as fast and far as suita- 
ble teachers can be found to conduct them. 
The experience of the writer in this direction, 
has satisfied him that any one of ordinary in- 
telligence may be fully inducted into the un- 
derstanding and practice of this divine Science, 
and we may say Art, for such it is in its prac- 



■ IMKii|)|'( [ION TO Till' 

lical application. It is a common experience 

for students in the middle of the first, or pri- 
mary course of instruction, to acquire sufficient 
mastery to instantaneously arrest pain, and 
prevent inflammation and soreness in quite 
ere hurts, burns, scalds, etc., and effect com- 
plete healing in a few moments or hours, ac- 

rding to the severity and extent of the inju- 
ry. In the same manner they also arrest and 
throw off severe colds and every form of dis- 
ease in their incipient stages, relieve neuralgia, 
headaches, and all pain, and find themselves 
in possession of the key to the mastery of 
chronic and organic diseases as well. 

That this teaching, being divested, as it is, 
of the mystery and superstition of the dark 
ages— which have intervened since the per- 
sonal advent and earthly ministry of Jesus, 
to becloud and pervert his doctrine and the 
on of his life— will induct our age into the 
full secret and possession of the spiritual in- 
- om and personal power which char- 
acterized the Christ and his immediate disci- 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 73 

pies, there can be no doubt. In the most posi- 
tive manner Jesus assures us, tlrat the works 
he did. and even greater, should be performed 
by such as truly believed on him. " These 

SIGNS SHALL FOLLOW THEM THAT BELIEVE. In 

my name" (fidelity to his teaching) shall they 
cast out devils (evils); they shall speak with 
new tongues ; they shall take up serpents, and 
if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt 
them ; they shall lay hands on the sick and 
they shall recover." 

This promise was literally fulfilled in apos- 
tolic experience, and also reproduced in the 
experience of a faithful few in every century 
from that day to this, proving its possibility 
for us. since these men were of " like passions " - 
with ourselves, that is, of like weaknesses Ma- 
ny of these experiences have been quite as re- 
markable and striking as were those recorded 
of the Apostles themselves. An interesting 
collation of tin se historical evidences of the 
so-called "supernatuial gifts of the Spirit," from 
the second century down, baa been presented 



" l HI INTRODUCTION TO THE 

Wm. Howitt in his " History of the Super- 
natural," from which we will cite a single case 
which belongs to our own century and is well 
attested, that of the "dure D' Ars," near Lyons, 
France : 

"The Cure D' Ars died early in 1859. He 
had for above thirty years astonished all France 
by the continued series of miracles occurring 
through him in his parish of Ars. not far from 
Lyons." " His cures were so marvelous that 
omnibuses were established to run regularly 
from Lyons to his house" 

u The Cure was hotly oppressed and calum- 
niated for a long time, even by his fellow cler- 
gymen. The miraculous events continually 
taking place at Ars were represented as im- 
postures, and he whs assailed as a hypocrite, a 
cheat, a fanatic; in short he went through 
the usual ordeal on all such occasions. 
Yet the bitterest enemies were compelled to 
confess themselves mistaken after proper ex- 
amination ; and the facts related in his history 
were familiar to hundreds of thousands, and 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 75 

made fully known in the face of all France. 
For thirty years 20,000 persons annually, of 
all ranks, and from every country in Europe, 
flocked to Ars. His church was densely crowd- 
ed day and night ; and the Cure, it is asserted, 
allowed himself only four hours sleep each 
night, his endurance being the greatest mira- 
cle. These are not facts of the past, but of the 
present age, capable of being tested. " 

Dr. G. Wyld, in an address before the " Brit- 
ish Theosophical Society " thus refers to this 
interesting case: " In the life of the Cure D' 
Ars, who left this earth only a few years ago, 
we have an example of a man wholly self-sa- 
crificing, and wholly given to God and good 
works. He became a divine and miraculous 
man, and with the power of prayer and the 
laying on of hands he cured all manner of 
disease; he saw the secrets of those who hid 
from him in confession their inner sins. He 
transformed wicked men and women into re- 
pentant, remorseful, and good beings, by a 
mere word, or touch of the hand, or glance of 



INTRODUCTION TO TIIE 

the eve ; and while he himself lived on crusts 
and water, he fed an orphanage of children, 
sometimes by a miraculous increase of bread. " 
The scientific commission sent out by the 
French government to investigate the occur- 
rences at the Spring of Lourde?, reported well- 
attested cases of cures quite as remarkable and 
11 miraculous" as any recorded in the New Tes- 
tament, if we except the « raising of the dead," 
and possibly the instantaneous "cleansing of 
the lepers." Some of these had to be attributed 
to the power of faith alone, as the water of the 
spring had not been used in these oases at all. 
While there are doubtless many exaggerated 
reports of modern " faith cures," " prayer cures," 
etc., there are plenty too well attested to admit 
of a doubt, some of which have all the charac- 
teristics of the * miraculous." These remarka- 
ble occurrences have become so common and 
patent that the attention of many eminent 
physiciansand physiologists has been seriously 
turned to their examination and careful study. 
Though it is yet too early to predict or fully 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 77 

anticipate what the result of a thorough scien- 
tific study of the matter will be, the following 
from a recent article in the London Lancet 
is probably a fair presentation of the present 
attitude of strictly scientific minds who have 
thus far candidly studied the facts and princi- 
ples involved : 

k> FAITH HEALING A FACT." 

" There can be no question that faith-healing 
is a fact. The brain is not simply the organ 
of the mind ; it is also the chief center, or series 
of centers, of the nervous system, by which the 
whole body is energized, and its component 
parts, with their several functions, are gov- 
erned and regulated. There is no miracle in 
healing by faith, whereas it would be a miracle 
if the organism, being constituted as it is, and 
the laws of life such as they are, faith-healing 
did not under favorable conditions occur. The 
fallacy of those who proclaim faith-healing as 
a religious function, lies in the fact that they 
misunderstand and misinterpret their own 
formula. It is the faith that heals, not the hv. 



78 AX [NTRODU< ] InN TO THE 

pothecated source, or object, of faith outside 
the subject of faith. The whole process is self- 
contained. Nothing is done for the believer ; 
his act of believing is the motor force of his 
cure. We all remember the old trick of mak- 
ing a man ill by persistently telling him he is 
ill, until he believes it. The contrary of this 
is making a man well by inducing him to be- 
lieve himself so. The number of miracles per- 
formed will be the precise number of the per- 
sons who are capable of being thrown into a 
state of mind and body in which faith domi- 
nates the organic state An exercise of 

faith, as a rule, suspends the operation of ad- 
verse influences, and appeals strongly through 
consciousness to the inner and underlying fac- 
ulty of vital force. There are many intracta- 
ble cases in every practice which might be 
cured by faith. It is well that these poor per- 
sons should be benefitted by some means, it 
matters little what ; and if they can be healed 
by faith light to be very glad, and thank- 

ful, too." 



THEOSOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 79 

Surely, if these " intractable cases " may "be 
cured by faith," the less difficult ones ought 
also to be. This is valuable scientific testimo- 
ny to the fact of honest faith cures, coming as 
it does from one of the foremost medical jour- 
nals, though some of its affirinations are open 
to criticism. Its position in the main corres- 
ponds certainly with the words of the Master, 
to many who were healed under his ministra- 
tions — "Thy faith hath made thee whole;" 
"According to your faith be it done unto you;" 
"If thou canst believe, all things are possible 
to him that believeth." And while he ac- 
knowledged that in some cases healing virtue 
went out from him, faith on the part of the re- 
cipient or some one in sympathy with him, 
was still recognized as the essential condition 
for the operation of the healing power. Hence, 
as the " exercise of faith suspends the operation 
of adverse influence," that is, of diseased ac- 
tion, and "appeals strongly through conscious- 
ness to the inner and underlying faculty of vi- 
tal force," the healing power is limited in its 



AN INTRODUCnOH TO I'll B 

activity only by the extent to which faith itself 

1S ' l] - The whole matter rests in the 

science of inducing or securing the favorable 
editions— the art of awakening the proper 
erase of faith. The perfect faith of Jesus 
and that also of the apostles after they had 
been fully inducted into it, seemed to be all- 
sufficient to awaken it in their patients ; and 
a corresponding faith on the part of physicians 
to-day would doubtless work a like result. It 
must be confessed, however, that the material- 
istic hrodency of modern scientific thought, is 
not a favorable basis for the development and 
exercise of apostolic faith. A return to the 
pure teaching of the Christ concerning the 
spiritual nature and divine possibilities of man 
the child of God ; and therefore the indwell- 
ing presence and power <»f God in the life of 
man, is the only effectual means of calling 
ih and establishing this Christ-like faith in 
lern lite, since that was the haeis of the 
wonder-working faith of the Christ himself. 



TIIE030PHY OF THE CHRIST. 81 

The law of the action of faith on the vital 
processes, as recognized by the Lancet, is based 
upon the direct influence which the mental 
states of the free powers of volition and con- 
sciousness, through organic sympathy, exert of 
necessity on the vital functions, which func- 
tions are strictly automatic or involuntary. 
Through this organic relation and sympathy 
between the powers of volition and the auto- 
matic functions of vitality, the depressed men- 
tal states of fear and despondency disturb and 
depress by their interactive influence, these 
important functions, while the exaltation and 
buoyancy of hope and faith correspondingly 
exalt, quicken and sustain them. All this is 
indeed within the circuit of the individual or- 
ganism, and self-contained. And so far as the 
direct sympathetic influence of the mental act 
of faith stimulates and sustains the recupera- 
tive function of vitality, or which perhaps is a 
more significant and suggestive phrase, the 
healing power of life, this " act of believing" 
may be called "the motor force of the cure." 



1 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

And even when the cure is apparently wrought 
through an entirely extraneous influence, as 
the prayer of interested friends present or ab- 
sent, the touch or word of command by the 
healer, the actual process of healing may still 
be said to be— in a very large degree, if not 
wholly so as some believe— " self-contained " 
and within the circuit of the individual organ- 
ism, the process itself being set in motion and 
quickened by the extraneous influence, whether 
it be by the laying on of Lands, the positive 
word of command, or the silent transference of 
thought and desire of the praying friends, or 
of the so-called mind curer, present or absent. 
Yet in the strict sense it is not the faith, or 
thought, or mind that heals, as the very same 
process of healing takes place in the plant in 
which there is and can be no organic action of 
faith, thought or mind. It is the healing power 
of life itself in the recuperative function of vi- 
tality: which in plant, animal and man is 
wholly automatic and spontaneously active in 
disease or injury from any cause, independent 



THEOSOPIIY OF THE CHRIST. 83 

of mental states, whether of faith or fear. The 
spontaneous action of this healing function of 
life is precisely the same in man as in animals 
and plants,the only difference being that in man 
the mental states of his free powers of volition 
and consciousness, through this interactive in- 
fluence, may co-operate with and sustain this 
function by the inspiration or stimulus of hope 
and faith, or obstruct and disturb it by the de- 
pressing and deranging influence of fear, dis- 
tiust and despondenc} r . 

In the light of this simple exposition of the 
law and the power of the mind through its 
sympathetic influence over the processes of vi- 
tality to exalt, promote, and sustain their har- 
monious and healthful action, or depress and 
derange them, it will readily be seen how fully 
the disease and poverty, or the health and 
perfection of our organisms rest in our own 
hands, as well as our own personal responsibil- 
ity in the matter. And when we remember 
also the influence that one mind exerts upon 
another, we can easily understand what 



AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 

power this knowledge puts into our hands for 
good or ill over our fellow beings, and the im- 
portance as well as philosophy of the great 
Teacher's words, " Ye have heard it said of old 
time thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate 
thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your 
enemies, do good to them that hate you, and 
pray for them that despitefully use you and 
persecute you ; that ye may be the children of 
your Father who is in heaven ; for he maketh 
his sun to shine upon the evil and the good, 
and sendeth rain upon the just and the un- 
just * " He is kind to the unthankful and the 
evil." "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Fa- 
ther in heaven is perfect" The law of health, 
healing and perfection for both the individual 
and the race is found or revealed in this divine 
teaching. 

We are not to be « overcome of evil, but to 
overcome evil with good." But how can this 
be done unless we recognize the good as uni- 
versal and supreme, and evil as limited and 
transient in its nature? We must recognize 



THEOSOPIIY OF TUE CHRIST. 85 

the existence and supremacy of the divine ele- 
ment in the sick and enfeebled, and its abso- 
lute power to heal and restore from disease or 
injury, when thus recognized, evoked, and co- 
operated with to this end. This constitutes the 
effectual '-prayer of faith," which "shall save 
the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and 
if he have committed sins they shall be for- 
given him." (James v. 14.) This also consti- 
tutes agenuine "Mental Treatment" for the heal- 
ing of others, and when applied to self, for 
self-healing. 

In like manner we must recognize the exist- 
ence and divine supremacy of the good in the 
sinner, and even our enemy, and its absolute 
power to overcome and cast out the evil and 
reform the sinner, when thus recognized, 
evoked, and co-operated with. When we rec- 
ognize in every man a brother, and speak and 
act from the divine in us to the divine in him, 
we awake the divine in him and strengthen it 
m ourselves. But when we see only the error 
or evil in our neighbor, and speak and act from 



\X INTRODUCTION TO THE 

the devilish in ourselves to the same in him, 
we raise the devil in our neighbor and strength- 
en his hold upon ourselves. So when we rec- 
ognize the supremacy of disease in ourselves 
or others, and speak and act from our fear and 
thought of its supremacy, we strengthen the 
disease and correspondingly suppress the heal- 
ing power. But to throw away all fear of dis- 
ease, in the recognition and understanding of 
the divine supremacy of the healing power of 
life, or of God in the life, and concentrate our 
whole attention in confidence and trust upon 
the healing power as greater than the disease, 
we inevitably establish its supremacy and se- 
cure the healing. This of necessi ty involves 
also the corresponding withdrawal of the at- 
tention from the disease, and letting go all 
thought of its possible continuance This is 
the simple key to all Mental Healing, whether 
it be called u Faith Healing," « Prayer Cure," 
"Metaphysical Healing," or "Mind Cure," etc. 
If "in God we live, move and have our be- 
ing," as Christianity affirms, then every mo- 



THE9SOPHY OF THE CHRIST. 8? 

tion and process of the involuntary life within 
us are divine activities and, therefore, charged 
and instinct with a divine potency and skill. 
They are the manifestation of the indwelling 
Presenee and Power of God, who will do His 
work perfectly in us when not interrupted or 
interfered with by the freedom of our own 
power of choice and action in the matter, with 
which He has endowed us. By the very neces- 
sity of this gift of freedom, God is bound to re- 
spect the choice we make ; hence the great law . 
of this freedom as formulated by the Master ; 
%l Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shall 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
(Matt, xviii. 18.) Thus man has power to ob* 
struct the automatic processes of his life by a 
false mental attitude toward them, and to limit 
the measure of the divine activity within bim 
by his own Ideal or conception of what that 
limit is or shall be. So on the other hand, 
when his understanding is opened to the rec- 
ognition of God'f Ideal of organic perfection 



AX INTRODUCTION TO THE 

for him, and the farther recognition of the per- 
fect means which God has instituted in the 
very functions of his personal life, and the di- 
vine potency and skill with which they are 
endowed for the actualization of this perfec- 
tion, man has power to accept and make this 
Ideal and provision his own, and by full men- 
tal co-operation with them, open himself to the 
unfettered operations of the divine activity 
within and thus be lifted to the supreme 
possibilities of his being, both physically and 
spiritually. 

"Then would the reign of Truth commence on earth, 
And starting fresh, as from a second birth, 

Man. in the sunshine of the world's new spring, 
Would walk transparent, like some holy thing-." 




NOTICE. 

This treatise being designed simply as an 
introduction to Christian Theosophy, and to 
awaken an interest in the sublime possibilities 
it opens to man, the basis, scope, object, and 
character of its teaching are only presented. 
A full exposition of the principles, conditions, 
and specific processes thus far established in 
its teaching must be left for a larger work now 
in preparation and soon to be issued, in which 
the special methods and exercises employed by 
the writer with the most gratifying results, 
will be given as fully as possible. No text 
book, however, can ever equal personal in- 
struction. Were it so, the New Testament 
would be all-sufficient without teacher or in- 
terpreter. 

Soon to be issued: u The Way, The Truth and The 

Life," a Handbook of Christian Theosophy and Healing, 

with a full exposition of the conditions, specific processes 

and exercises through which Christian Adeptship is 

attained. 

By J. H. DEWEY, M. D. 










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